

INTRODUCTION TO ALGOLOGY. 



SOXG OF THE SKA. WEED. 



I am born in crystal bower, 



Wh^re the despot hath no power 



To trail and turn the oozy fern, 



Or trample down the fair sea flower. 



I am born where human s-kill 



Cannot bend me to its will ; 



N<>ne can delve about my root, 



And nurse me for my bloom and fruit : 



I am left to spread and grow 



In my rifted bed below, 



Till I break my slender hold 



As the porpoise tumbleth o'er me, 

 And on I go — now high — now low — 



With the ocean-wurld before me. 



Eliza Cook. 



In selecting this branch of Natural History as the theme for this 

 little treatise, I am not actuated by the belief that it is of more 

 importance, or that its study is more fascinating and calculated to 

 elicit a livelier interest, than any oilier; fori am impressed that 

 every branch of Natural History is equally important, eqnal'y 

 interesting ; and that every thing appertaining to the book of natuie 

 possesses within itself a fascinating power, which, when under- 

 stood, cannot fail to awaken the purest admiration in the human 

 mind ; — but I am induced to take this subject as a page in God's 

 book hitherto overlooked and neglected in this country — a page 

 which, I know, requires only to be opened to be duly appreciated 

 by those who can look in nature, and there see. nature's God. 



I am aware that this class, Algas, is in the lowest scale of vege- 

 table organism ; that, its habitat being the mighty deep, it is f uiher 

 from our view; that we therefore do not come every day in contact 

 with it ; that its beauties and its uses are mostly hidden from us. 



